The National Association of Manufacturers announced a new online trade directory that allows purchasing officers to find suppliers and service providers faster and easier, as well as less expensively, than ever before.
"You know the product or service you need, but a simple web search will turn up thousands of results, most of which have nothing to do with procurement," said Dan Akman, NAM assistant vice president for marketing and e-business. "You can search by company, but how can you possibly know all of the companies that provide what you need? The NAM Buyer-Seller Network lets you quickly find exactly what you need and who provides it."
Using the Internet’s most advanced indexing system, the network allows searches by more than 60,000 product and service categories (compared to the 1,005 Standard Industrial Codes). The results are pulled from the quality pool of 14,000 NAM members. "Register to automate your searches and you can track individual companies to a preferred list, by category, with links to contact information in a password-protected buyer home-page," Akman said. "You can even add the Buyer-Seller Network link directly to your company’s internal web site, so purchasing managers across the organization can quickly access the NAM’s first-class suppliers. And companies can use the platform to privately connect with their existing trusted vendor base."
Each search will produce results either immediately or within 48 hours. Basic listing privileges for suppliers are free for NAM members. Any Internet user can search the trade directory — in 16 languages — and send requests for quotes or information by email or fax. More than 21,000 buyers are currently registered in the system.
"The beauty of this network is in its simplicity," Akman said. "The problem with the first round of B2B web sites is that they were too complicated, so people didn’t use them. The Buyer-Seller Network eliminates a lot of wasted effort, because purchasers can quickly and easily find the companies that provide exactly what they need and then — having found each other online — they can complete the deal offline, using the vast potential of the Internet to save time. It’s the best of both worlds."
Source: National Association of Manufacturers
